Reports Tie Jailed US ‘Consulate Worker’ with Drone Strikes

No Air Strikes Since Davis' Arrest, Coincidence?

Anonymous “technical advisor” for the US Consulate in Lahore Raymond Davis, two anonymous motorcyclists gunned down on the streets and a major diplomatic row over the intricacies of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic immunity.

This hardly made for a “simple” story in the first place, but rumors and preliminary reports from unnamed officials are putting a number of new spins on this incident which could potentially turn this into one of the seediest scandals imaginable.

That is because investigators reportedly found GPS targeting chips on Davis, the kind which were used in the US drone attacks in North Waziristan. Adding to the intrigue, Davis is said to have made several unauthorized visits to North Waziristan before his arrest.

If that sounds a little far-fetched, there’s another piece of evidence tying this together. After attacks several times a week there hasn’t been a single US drone strike in the tribal areas in the past 25 days, and they stopped just a couple of days before Davis’ arrest.

What about the two cyclists? The ones Davis said were trying to “rob” him and that he shot in the back, including one he jumped out of the car and ran down the street to finish off? Reports have been around from the start that they may have been spies for Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, and if Davis was indeed involved in the drone strikes, it might well explain their interest in him.

Obviously all of this is pretty speculative, but the story of impossible intrigue and diplomatic dispute does seem internally consistent, and only adds another reason why this story will simply not vanish from headlines in Pakistan.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.